I’m really big on trying foods that I think I don’t like – something that I’ve eaten in the past and perhaps not been too thrilled with how it tasted, or just didn’t appreciate as much as other people seemed to – trying them again after a decent amount of time has passed, just to give them a fair shake.  I do this quite a bit, giving a few years between each try of a food… although some things, like olives, I kept trying a few times a month because they are just, by nature, something I should like!  Errr, anyway…

Basically, a while back, I bought a bag of cheese tortelloni in a tomato cream sauce, because I don’t tend to like filled pastas (ravioli, agnolotti, and of course, tortelloni).  It was a long time ago; frozen pasta plus I was just never in the mood for trying tortelloni again.  Ah well.  It got a lil freezer burn, yes. 

It cooked down fine enough after the freezer burn melted away. 

Not too bad looking, right?

And the cheese innards.  Verdict?  I think this was fine, but I still don’t like tortelloni.  Not their fault – and yes, I’ve had housemade, super fancy pants tortellini/tortelloni at restaurants, from nice places, and I still don’t like it all that much.  So please no comments on how I just have to try “good” tortellini/tortelloni – I don’t think I like it!  But feel free to recommend places for me to try and what I should order!   

Do you guys re-try foods that you previously didn’t like?  Have you found yourself changing your mind about anything at all?  Anything that you just keep trying but never like?  Share in the comments please! 

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What’s that?

That, my friends, is glorious.  And vegetarian.  I think it might even be… vegan!  Did you ever think you’d hear me say those words?  Yeah, me neither. 

Maybe you remember a long time ago, I went on a Walking Feast and mentioned something we ate entitled “Miso Tofu.”  I stated I intended to recreate it at home, and I finally did.

Boy, did I.

I mean really it’s been percolating in my head for so long, that when I finally went to make it, I did it without even thinking about it.  It was so easy.  So, so, so easy.  And delicious.

Served with plain white rice, a perfect meal. 

But you know that’s not how I roll…

Of course I had to serve it with some simple veggies too.  Perfect easy weeknight meal.  Mmm.

For the veggies, I just had bean sprouts and sauteed kale/beet greens. 

To make the miso tofu, you need:

shiro/white miso
seasoned rice vinegar
mirin
1/2 block silken tofu (you can use firm, too, if you like, which I think I will next time)

Mix the first three ingredients thoroughly.  Should become a little thinner than a paste but not watery.  Spoon some over block of tofu (cold).  Serve with hot white rice.  Serving suggestion: also serve with some veggies.

Mmmmmmmm, so damn good and healthy.

Happy eating!!!

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As I mentioned in my last post, it was Asian BBQ & Booze on a Stick night.  Well, Asian BBQ out of the way, we headed over to Counter to check out this ‘booze on a stick’ that SpB told us she read about somewhere…

Each order was $6 and included 3 mini popsicles – like the size if you’d used one of those tiny Dixie cups and frozen them in there.  Not bad, to be honest, though my friends reminded me that it wasn’t like we got a lot of alcohol… but hell, I’m not going to complain about the price. 

The three flavors we got were raspberry something, strawberry mint, and blueberry.  Don’t ask me what alcohol was in each – I heard ‘vodka, rum, and prosecco’ but the guy was mumbling something fierce (it wasn’t an accent, he just refused to enunciate, and I got bored of asking him to repeat himself).  In any case, each of us 4 girls (we each got our own) had our favorites – I preferred strawberry, despite the mint; HB preferred raspberry; and I forget what the other two liked exactly, but someone did like blueberry.  Overall, though, I found them a bit boring… very much like if someone pureed not-very-ripe-fruit, added a few drops of alcohol (which you couldn’t taste at all), then froze it and called it a day.  Too blandly flavored – either taste like alcohol or taste like a popsicle, but don’t taste like nothing!  Are you using supermarket fruit or what?!  If so, then add some subtle honey or sugar!  While an inexpensive, fun treat for a warm night, I don’t know if I’d go back unless they change their recipe.

Yvo says: The restaurant smelled really good, though most people around us seemed to be there more for drinks and snacks than eating all out meals (I saw a lot of frites, hummus, appetizer type dishes going out).  But it wasn’t busy around 9 on a Friday night, and as I said, specific to the booze pops – I won’t go back unless I hear that they’ve significantly amped up the recipe. 
for what we got – pass until the recipe has been improved
other stuff, I don’t know, we didn’t try

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Yes my friends… I made pizza. 

Sort of.  I bought Trader Joe’s pizza dough.  At 99c a ball… well, how do you say no to that?  And it turns out that rolling out the dough isn’t that hard (when you have the right equipment – I bought a French rolling pin a while back, so I do), I managed to get it pretty darn thin.  Except my surface wasn’t exactly the best for this so one edge refused to roll out thinly (you can kinda see it, top left in the pic), so I wound up just folding that edge over a little bit, haha. 

Not that it mattered much in the end…

GOD that’s a gorgeous pizza, isn’t it?  Homemade sauce, home-grown basil, five different types of cheeses,…

It cut up well… and it tasted good… except…

CRUST FAIL F*CKING FAIL.

The directions on the package say to roll it out, top it, and then bake for xx minutes.  I followed the directions, but the crust was kind of soggy/soft/not quite fully cooked.  So I stuck it in for longer, which resulted in the basil (I sprinkled it on after I took the pizza out, but before I tried any pizza) turning black.  I had to take it out before the cheese burned, so the bottom remained quite soft.  Edible, but not delicious – the stuff on top was awesome.  Period. 

BF’s dad suggested blind baking (well, he said “You have to bake the crust first, that’s what all the pizza joints do”), but I politely kept my mouth shut, knowing this is not true.  I’ve watched many a pie be assembled, and the dough always starts off raw.  True, those are at pizza joints with 900 degree ovens and higher, but… seriously.  Any suggestions BESIDES blind baking (which I know will change the pizza from what it is to something along the lines of bread topped with some delicious stuff)? 

Note: I topped it with Trader Joe’s Quattro Formaggio mix – provolone, parmesan, fontina and asiago cheeses, and Trader Joe’s shredded mozzarella.  The sauce was quickly made and quite yummy:

Minced garlic and onion in the bottom of a pot with olive oil.
Once softened, sprinkle with Italian seasoning, stir. 
Add a can of diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, some crushed red pepper flakes.
Add tomato paste, a pinch of sugar and cook until desired thickness achieved.

Pretty good for pasta, and for portobello parmesan too  

Aside from that – what did I do wrong?  I don’t want to purchase any special equipment (so please, no suggestions to buy a pizza stone) as I won’t be making pizza often, but I’d like it still to be an option occasionally. 

Help?  Thanks!!!

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Imagine my surprise when I came back to an explosion of comments on that post… and the discovery that Grub Street wrote about my list (my second-ever appearance in Grub Street, and it’s tagged ‘flatulence’ – yes, I make splashes like no one else, haha) as did Veg Daily, which claimed I blew a lot of hot air about going veg.  (Ok, Grub Street’s headline “Cutting out meat leads to cutting the cheese?” was pretty funny too.  Actually, there are a lot of amusing headlines you could write about my article… I’m just not that creative I guess.) 

In any case, I wanted to address the comments and concerns over my list of discoveries – I suppose I could just respond to the comments, but this is more fun, no?

The first big issue is that people seem to have misunderstood a lot of things I wrote.  So let’s go again (for your reference, the original list is here):

1. Eating a (semi-)vegetarian diet made me very gassy.  Enough comments came through that make it clear I am not the only one.  I never said it smelled bad, or that being vegetarian makes you smell bad – bordering on the gross and/or TMI, it wasn’t like it smelled.  But I was very gassy during this time, and I hadn’t changed anything about my diet except not eating meat.  The conclusion was a logical step for me.  Oh, and for those who are new to my blog?  I actually eat a lot of vegetables on a regular basis.  I like – no, I even love vegetables, properly prepared.  I have a fairly healthy diet, light on the carbs but heavy on the vegetables and meat.
2. To clarify: I have only one vegetarian friend.  Everyone else is an omnivore, and I stand by what I said: it is NOT impossible to eat out [with non-veg friends] but it is difficult because you do have to keep asking “Is there meat in that?” or “Is that made with meat?” etc.  I allowed myself the choice of eating things made with meat stocks or fats, and I still found it difficult to find things to eat occasionally without resorting to a plain salad.  My friends went for ramen and I had to politely decline not even because of the pork broth. 
3. -
4. I will address this when I respond to comments.
5. See #1.
6. I will address this when I respond to comments.
7. I don’t see how this is negative – I state explicitly that you can have it both ways, I did, and so can you (if you want).
8. Leaving out a hyphen makes a big difference!  I didn’t mean ALL vegetable dishes; I meant dishes comprised of all vegetables tend to be on the bland/boring side.  Unless…
9. you add a lot of spicy stuff or hot sauce.  A lot of meat items you can just salt up and grill/cook, and they’re delicious.  I find this less true, or rather, true about less vegetable items than meat items. 
10. See #1.
11. I really don’t know why people are heated about this point to be honest.  I said something nice about being vegetarian – considering before this challenge to myself, I’d been one to say “I just don’t feel full unless I have meat,” for me to say now that I’ve learned I can be completely sated and happy eating a vegetarian meal, isn’t that a good thing?
12. Again, everyone seemed to focus on the negative but ignored this point.  I said I can definitely see myself dropping meat from a few meals a week.  I don’t need to eat as much meat as I thought I did.  Isn’t that a good thing? 
13. Ah, the advance planning point.  What was I thinking?  Seriously, I was specifically thinking about times when I’d been unable to pack my lunch (which, by the way, helped a lot in terms of keeping to this challenge), and had to struggle to find something in the area of my office that was suitable for consumption.  Pizza, onion rings, french fries, freshly-tossed-salads – that seemed to be the only items in the Financial District available to me, and they aren’t exactly gourmet choices or things that I’d be all “Ooh I want that” or that I could eat on a daily basis.  That just isn’t healthy.
14. I’m actually surprised no one commented on this one, but I do feel it’s true.
15. See #1. 

Now, on to the comments!

keite- I hope I never find out what type of gas or how pleasant/unpleasant my friends’ gas is… hahahaha.  Seriously though, it’s not a contest.  I never said it was bad, but it was definitely more frequent than I am accustomed to – and quite a few of the comments agreed with me.  See Nicholas’s comment (below yours). 

SkippyMom – Admittedly, I didn’t keep hard tabs on my grocery bills before this challenge started, but I do know that just from the first few weeks while still eating fish to the next few weeks of eating no animal flesh, my weekly grocery bill went from $20 to $10.  I would imagine my not eating meat lowered the bill drastically as well, though I do tend to buy things like chicken thighs in bulk and freeze them (which keeps the cost to a minimum), and I don’t eat quite as much beef as one would imagine (even that, I buy ground beef in bulk and freeze it in .5-.75 lb portions in sandwich bags).  So… the answer to your question is “probably” haha. 

Anonymous (1) – to respond to your questions: ummm, I care about having more gas, and a lot of people do, I believe. 
Second, sure, lots of restaurants are vegan or vegetarian, but I don’t feel comfortable asking that my non-vegetarian friends go to a restaurant solely for my sake because I don’t eat meat – temporarily, no less – and I wouldn’t expect anyone to do so, either! 
Third, I find it fascinating that you tell me I need to re-examine the food pyramid but then later tell me that meat and dairy are not healthy – last I checked, they’re part of the same food pyramid to which you refer, which discounts your entire point.
Oh, and if you’d read my point carefully, I state explicitly that it was never friends who were mean to me about what I eat, nor did my friends ever tell me to eat meat when I said I wasn’t feeling well.  It was always people I didn’t know very well, and those points were actually stated as an epiphany that perhaps it’s time for everyone to stop telling vegetarians to eat meat… because it isn’t nice.
Although I reiterated my point above about needing to plan carefully, the fact is, as a meat-eater, if I am hungry and need something quick, I can run into any place on any street nearly anywhere and find myself with many choices – some healthy and some not so healthy – whereas the same cannot be said for vegetarians.  So yes, planning is necessary; planning should be part of any healthy diet, but most people don’t do it. 
As for your last paragraph, that’s just blatant propaganda and well, horse manure.  You know what uses up a lot of energy?  Creating soy products that look and/or taste like meat.  Just eat the tofu the way it is instead of doctoring it to taste like meat. 

Gar – I agree with everything in moderation.  I think you mean “Dirt Candy” though not Dirty lol   And actually, I eat a lot of vegetables on a regular basis, but usually with more protein than I obviously consumed during my Meat Hiatus.  And thanks – I agree the options are out there, but I still maintain that it does take a bit of searching if you ‘just want a quick bite’ and duck into a random place… and you may have to exit and look again a few times before you find a place. 

Ange - 6 & 7 are pretty terrible.  Some people were so rude.  I’m surprised that you don’t find 11 and/or 12 to be true, actually, and if 4 doesn’t apply to you… are you super thin or something?

Niko – lol, seriously, I only meant that it’s hard if you’re confined to finding a lunch that fulfills those requirements and you have to be near your office.  You can’t tell me that in Midtown, you have an easy time of finding meatless meals that are healthy on a regular basis!  And no to the desserts… that is just… no

BS – Thanks, and all I can say to the rest of your comment – you KNOW why – HAHHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH!!!

Lizz – ahhh, that sucks, I can’t imagine going out when feeling the way I did when I ate too many veggies….!

mesogeia – Wow!  I don’t think I could give up eggs and dairy as well.  Did you eat a lot of tofu?  Big props to you, I feel silly for even making such a fuss over giving up animal flesh for 41 days!  I seriously wonder about the gas thing because according to the Grub Street article, it’s “common wisdom” that eating meat is what gives you gas! 

Now, because I’m that self indulgent, I’m also going to respond to the comments on the Grub Street article! 

IDANCEATLEDISKO – Thank you!

Bett – You’re right; it should read “Not eating meat led to me being very gassy.  I don’t claim to know the inner workings of all (or any, really) vegetarians, nor whether they are gassy or not.  My mistake!

Ladybugspots – It genuinely never occurred to me that I’d be gassy simply from changing my diet to exclude something I eat but not really adding much to my diet that I didn’t already eat.  I guess I know for next time!  Thanks

WMUAlumnus – already responded to your comment above, thanks!

NobodyElseHasThis – I think I clarified what I meant above about the vegetables being bland?  Oh, and it takes me about 2-3 minutes to poop as a meat eater.  Maybe TMI but you started it! 

VegCityGal – Hmm.  I wouldn’t call myself a reporter, though I did report on my personal findings from my own Meat Hiatus.  If you keep that in mind, perhaps you’d understand what I was trying to say a bit better.  Also, I’m not sure why everyone keeps saying ‘vegetarian food’ – I didn’t eat vegetarian food, I ate vegetables.  I avoided all meat replacements and simply didn’t eat meat.  From my limited exposure to vegetarians – I don’t actually know any vegetarians who do that – they all eat meat substitutes, perhaps not on a daily basis.  And… to your first sentence – if you can call it that – utter, bitter nonsense?  Enough people have agreed with me (vegetarian and non) on various points that you can’t deny I have spoken truthfully based on my own experiences, which other people have also experienced for themselves. 

SusyCav – Wow, a personal attack on my body… did you even read my full article or bother looking to see my carefully documented journey, during which I kept a log of what exactly I ate?  I’m a happy, healthy omnivore, with a happy, healthy digestive system – neither you nor I are urban legends.  We exist.  And I’d like to think we can co-exist peacefully, although if you keep making sweeping generalizations about meat eaters, things might get ugly.  Especially when you pretty much just called me fat.  As for the reason I went veg temporarily, it was, as is stated in the Grub Street article, because I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could do it.  Was it hard?  Yes.  Was it worth it?  Oh, hell yeah.  I learned a lot during this time, which no one can take from me, even if they would like to say repeatedly that I am wrong about the things I observed, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.  Observations are subjective, as are nearly every blog.  Oh, and for your sign off?  I’m a fairly ‘green’ person, and going veg or not is a very personal decision.  It is not for everyone. 

DD7 – The point was to be able to eat at restaurants that don’t cater solely to vegetarians, and actually, it was more specific to being able to not bring my own lunch and still be able to find a decent lunch in the immediate area surrounding my office building.  I believe I’ve addressed all of your concerns above from other comments?  As for living up to the “foodie” name… I’m not even sure what that means anymore.  Some people take it to mean food snob… and I am SO not into that.  I will always live up to the “feisty” part of the title, but once foodie starts meaning people who only eat artisanal this or locally sourced that… forget it! 

Erock4 – Thank you

BernardBrown - Thank you!!!  I think you understood the basic point of everything I was saying much better than most people.

Seriously, thank you to everyone for linking/reading/hating/commenting/everything.  I want to emphasize that this was a great learning experience for me; I did learn, first and foremost, that I can (and will) drop meat from my diet more frequently now as it isn’t 100% necessary.  I also learned a bit of sympathy/empathy for vegetarians – from dealing with rude people who will tell you that you should just eat meat or people who will push their blatant agenda on you (cough cough from an omnivore’s POV, this happens to me by vegetarians/vegans more often than you might think, but it was interesting getting it from the other side), and smelling grilled meat when you know you can’t (or won’t) eat it… Well, it was a great learning experience that I don’t regret one bit. 

I also learned that I can have meatless meals and barely miss the meat… which is great for my wallet!  And, depending on who you talk to, for my health as well. 

Cheers and thanks again for reading!!!

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